Flowers In The Wild

When this rather poor farmland became ours twenty-eight years ago, we were in our fifth decade of existence and capable of hours of physical labor in intense sunlight.  Sod was removed and stacked to compost.  Stones were sifted from the soil and used to build weed free paths.  Tired but happy was the rule of each day.  Our present loss of function has totally changed our garden.  This Butterfly Weed plant may have planted itself here.  We remember trying to establish purchased plants with mixed results.  This plant may well be self planted from seed.  It is at the end of a planting bed in full view from the living room window.  Many recent days find us watching this Aphrodite Fritillary butterfly from the comfort of an airconditioned room.  As I was being driven inside by the oppressive heat, I  stopped for this photo.

Rose Campion is a beautiful but difficult plant.  Its brightly colored flowers are backed by a silver green colored foliage.  It is a biennial with a low rosette of leaves as its first year of growth.  A long tap root makes transplantation difficult.  We have been content to let these plants grow where they please.  In time small sifted stone paths become filled with composted plant parts and minerals from the stones.  Many plants seem to prefer this mixture as a place to grow.  We happily walk around these beauties to use our garden paths.

This view is looking straight down a thirty by three foot stone path.  No stones are visible despite their six inch depth.  Wood Betony is another purple color flowered plant that has been popular here for decades.  Planted in our carefully prepared soil, the plants grew but did not flourish.  These plants are all escapees from our stone free planting beds.  They find something in the path ground that was missing from the soil that we created.  We intend to clear out some of the weeds while doing no damage to these special plants in preparation for next year's display.

Elle gave us these Gloriosa Daisies years ago.  As she said would happen, many plants returned to yellow only petals while some of the brightly colored flowers persist.  We are moving along in age ourselves with no plan for what comes next and find some comfort from these past gifts.  Many different plants in our gardens came from Elle  They always bring to the front pleasant memories.